Society, Love and Marriage in Sense and Sensibility - Term Paper Example

Prof’s month year Society, Love and Marriage in Sense and Sensibility When Jane Austen began her writing career in the late 1700s it is obvious she based her characters and plots on the world she saw around her. Sense and Sensibility was Austen’s first published work in 1811. However, she did not have her name connected to it because, in her world, she was crossing gender constructs into the male public sphere and would have had to deal with dire repercussions by doing so if her name became known. Writing was a masculine identified occupation or avocation and a world in which women supposedly never ventured. Society in Austen’s era strongly dictated the process of marriage. While Sense and Sensibility reflects societal norms for marriage in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Austen’s work shows a wrestling going on between marriage for money or love, and in the end romantic ideals of marriage for love wins out. The purpose of marriage changed over recorded history. In ancient times, religion or gods did not sanction marriage. Indeed, if a couple wished to marry, all they had to do was to commit themselves to each other. Marriage was a private affair between two people. Love did not necessarily play a role in marriage. God or gods did not necessarily play a role in marriage either. Even the Roman church did not set about rules for marriage until relatively late in its development. It was not until the 1500s and 1600s - through the process of trying to legitimize children born outside the bounds of marriage for purposes of inheritance - that the rules of modern marriage emerged. Mostly the idea of marrying two people came about to prevent illegitimate children from trying to get a portion of an estate reserved for legitimate children. That idea is borne out in the Bible when Isaac, Abraham’s second son, but the first son by his wife Sarah, received God’s covenant over Ishmael, who was Abraham’s firstborn son but not of a legal wife, and the trouble it caused to Abraham’s ancestors through Ishmael. Marriage became the way to pass inheritance to legitimate heirs born within the bonds of marriage. The Catholic Church solidified the marriage process with the Council of Trent in the mid 1500s. Thereafter, a marriage had to be sanctified by a church in order to be legal. However, that did not mean the two parties entering into a union were in love. In fact, more marriages of middle to upper class families were about alliances that created more wealth, power and land holdings for their families than about love the two parties had for one another. Marriage for love was an idea relegated to lower class individuals at times, if at all. Romanticism was a new philosophy coming into existence just as Austen was growing up and is demonstrated in Sense and Sensibility. Marriage for love is a somewhat fresh idea in 1800. Austen’s text superbly demonstrates the power of men and inheritance laws in the early 1800s. In the particular case of Henry Dashwood, his will left his estate to his son from his first marriage. Austen described the reading of the will: The old gentleman died: his will was read, and like almost every other will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure. He was neither so unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his nephew;--but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the bequest. Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son;--but to his son, and his son's son, a child of four years old, it was secured, in such a way, as to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear to him, and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate, or by any sale of its valuable woods. The whole was tied up for the benefit of this child, who, in occasional visits with his father and mother at Norland, had so far gained on the affections of his uncle, by such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three years old; an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise, as to outweigh all the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received from his niece and her daughters. He meant not to be unkind, however, and, as a mark of his affection for the three girls, he left them a thousand pounds a-piece. (Austen 2) Their father was generous to them but their half brother would end up not giving the sisters their money. They also had little recourse before the law. Women in English society had few rights. Married women had more power than single or widowed women. Very few women could own property unless it was willed to them through inheritance. More often, women were left fortunes or yearly stipends for their support but their fortunes also made them attractive to poor landed males who needed an infusion of money in order to keep their estates prosperous and in the family. Thus, if women had some money, women had a modicum of power over choosing a marriage partner. However, women who had no inheritance were really at the mercy of those around them to make a good marriage. Elinor and Marianne’s situation is a typical one of poor but refined ladies at the time. The type of marriage they might enjoy often did not include the emotion of love but compatibility or respect, comfort for her, and demonstrated man’s power over women. Another thing women were not often given was an education. Sometimes if brothers had a tutor, the females in the household gained an education alongside them. Education in Austen’s time also equaled power for women. Education plays a role in the novel, as it is education that saves Marianne from an unhappy union and education that binds Elinor to Edward Ferrar. Women of Austen’s era were ruled over by their fathers in their childhoods, ruled over by their husbands when married, and ruled over by their sons when their husbands died. Their legal status before the law was feme covert – which meant they were covered over by the males in their households. Men spoke for women legally. If women never married, after their fathers’ died, their brothers acted on their behalf. Women were usually not able to act as independent agents, unless they were married. Austen’s own life is an example of English societal norms; however, she had a private education, which was unusual at the time. As a writer, she ventured into the male world and if not careful, would become ineligible for marriage because she earned her own money and walked on the periphery of the male sphere. Austen’s writing did allow her some independence. Her example and foray into the male world would help other women who followed her as writers to actually publish in their own names by the mid nineteenth century. Austen also had advanced ideas about love and marriage for her time as Sense and Sensibility demonstrates. Social protocol for courtship and marriage in the early 1800s left men in charge of pursuing a wife and asking for her hand in marriage. While women had feelings for men, they were not supposed to reveal those feelings until the male first acted upon his own feelings. For example, as this painful passage suggests, Elinor had great feelings towards Edward but dared not say so. She acted confused about their courtship and wondered if it was just a mere friendship. Austen wrote about Elinor’s feelings: There was, at times, a want of spirits about him which, if it did not denote indifference, spoke of something almost as unpromising. A doubt of her regard, supposing him to feel it, need not give him more than inquietude. It would not be likely to produce that dejection of mind which frequently attended him. A more reasonable cause might be found in the dependent situation which forbade the indulgence of his affection. She knew that his mother neither behaved to him so as to make his home comfortable at present, nor to give him any assurance that he might form a home for himself, without strictly attending to her views for his aggrandizement. With such a knowledge as this, it was impossible for Elinor to feel easy on the subject. She was far from depending on that result of his preference of her, which her mother and sister still considered as certain. Nay, the longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard; and sometimes, for a few painful minutes, she believed it to be no more than friendship. (17) Elinor saw no hope of an impending proposal or marriage with Edward. Yet, she still could esteem his steady character and remained friends with him. It was his character that drew her to him. In Austen’s time, who a man proposed to also depended upon his economic standing. If one was starting out in life in a new career, a man had to consider how long it would take him to be able to support a wife. A male could not ask for a woman’s hand in marriage if he could not support her and the expected family to come. If a man already had a fortune, he could marry for love. But, when a man had a need for money, this limited his ability to marry for love and increased his need to marry for economic gain. Societal protocol also suggested the proper format for conversation between males and females. Polite conversation in Sense and Sensibility proves ironic and a waste of time. Austen suggests formalities are pretentious and frank conversation is more helpful and entertaining. Austen gives a fine example of candid conversation when Elinor discusses her feelings for Edward with Marianne. Elinor explains that she and Edward have open conversations. Austen wrote: ‘Of his sense and his goodness,’ continued Elinor, ‘no one can, I think, be in doubt, who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation. The excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent. You know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth. But of his minuter propensities, as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself. He and I have been at times thrown a good deal together, while you have been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother. I have seen a great deal of him, have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on subjects of literature and taste; and, upon the whole, I venture to pronounce that his mind is well-informed, enjoyment of books exceedingly great, his imagination lively, his observation just and correct, and his taste delicate and pure. His abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his manners and person. At first sight, his address is certainly not striking; and his person can hardly be called handsome, till the expression of his eyes, which are uncommonly good, and the general sweetness of his countenance, is perceived. At present, I know him so well, that I think him really handsome; or at least, almost so.’ (15) For Elinor, Edward’s beauty came from his intellect reveal to her when they openly talked and not any societal pretense. In Sense and Sensibility the Dashwood sisters are left homeless and penniless by their father, Henry Dashwood’s, death. There was no doubt that their father loved his daughters dearly, but his death left them to rely on others for survival. Henry relied on his son John to do the proper thing and care for his half sisters when he died, but John’s wife, Fanny, controlled John’s decisions, and the sisters are callously left to fend for themselves. In this instance, money means more than love and familial ties. Actually, at first John was going to give his sisters their inheritance of “three thousand pounds a year” but his wife made him do otherwise (3). The discussion of inheritance at the beginning of the novel reflect the actual long history of inheritance and how women are not seen as viable personages before the law able to inherit from their fathers’ estates. In this case, the Dashwood girls received no inheritance because they were from their father’s second marriage and their elder half brother was not favorably disposed toward his sisters after all. Henry Dashwood only had his estate because his first wife’s money supplied him with the means to maintain it. His second marriage was for love, but in that case, love did not equal money, nor did it equal the ability to keep his young daughters safe. In the Dashwood example, love equaled disinheritance, hunger, and poverty for the daughters and necessitated the need to marry well. Upon moving to Barton Cottage, the Dashwood sisters’ lives become interestingly filled with suitors. Austen wrote, “Little had Mrs. Dashwood or her daughters imagined when they first came into Devonshire, that so many engagements would arise to occupy their time as shortly presented themselves, or that they should have such frequent invitations and such constant visitors as to leave them little leisure for serious employment. Yet such was the case” (44). Elinor esteems and enjoys Edward’s company. Marianne is not so wise and falls in love with John Willoughby. Margaret, the youngest, shares in her sisters’ romantic endeavors. Elinor, the novel’s protagonist, remains steadfast and calm through the story. For her, love wins out over all other emotions, when she is not the most romantically inclined person. Marianne’s love for Willoughby seems like a fairy tale about chivalry where the lady is in a dire situation and rescued by a passing knight in shining armor on a white steed. And the feeling seemed mutual according to the writer: Willoughby, on his side, gave every proof of his pleasure in their acquaintance, which an evident wish of improving it could offer. He came to them every day. To enquire after Marianne was at first his excuse; but the encouragement of his reception, to which every day gave greater kindness, made such an excuse unnecessary before it had ceased to be possible, by Marianne's perfect recovery. She was confined for some days to the house; but never had any confinement been less irksome. Willoughby was a young man of good abilities, quick imagination, lively spirits, and open, affectionate manners. He was exactly formed to engage Marianne's heart, for with all this, he joined not only a captivating person, but a natural ardour of mind which was now roused and increased by the example of her own, and which recommended him to her affection beyond every thing else. (40) Willoughby is cunning and it turns out he has to marry for money, and thus Marianne is left wiser and sadder but with a better suitor in Colonel Brandon. In the end, Marianne marries Brandon, who is about twice her age. Despite the age difference, he demonstrates his love for her in spite of her frivolous nature. He is sensible and kind with her. The partners the sisters’ choose balance them nicely so they have an equal balance of sense and sensibility. In both cases, romantic love wins out over marriages for money and convenience. The characters are happy with their choices. Romanticism in Austen’s time came out of a need for people to make sense of their world – a world that was full of industrialization. Some proffered industrialization made the world dirty and those who made their livings from it tainted and less in touch with their fellow humans and their own feelings. One aspect of Romanticism suggested mankind was out of touch with his original nature – that man in his original state was good and had basic morals that industrialization had obscured. The mechanical processes brought on by industrialization also made people behave in mechanical ways. Romanticism aimed to awaken people’s souls once again to passion and goodness. All of the wrestling between marrying for money or love evidenced in Sense and Sensibility is going on in English society at the time the book was written. The English people were trying to make sense of a society that seemed so cold and mechanical and wanted to return to an imagined former time when man was supposedly naturally good and in touch with their emotions. Austen’s novel represents both sides of the English world: mechanical and passionate. In conclusion, Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility is a story about a war between old and new society norms. The old world was shown through societal constructs of inheritance laws, the rules of marriage, the rules of courtship, marriage, intimacy, and men’s and women’s roles. Inheritance laws left the females in this novel fending for themselves even though their father had left them some money. Their elder half brother decided it would be best for him to dole out the money on a as needed basis. He was ruled over by his wife and is a weak character in the book. In the real world, women usually could not inherit property, and were ruled over by men in every aspect of their lives. They had no standing before the law at all. Marriage became a normal process late in history with the Council of Trent setting the rules in the mid 1500s. Normalizing the process of marriage led to protection of inheritance among legitimate heirs and left illegitimate children without claim to a parent’s estate. The rules of courtship were balanced toward males having all the power and control during the courting period. Females who were being courted were not supposed to reveal their feelings until the marriage proposal. Sometimes, women had to wait a long time before revealing their feelings openly. Men and women could only be intimate with each other after marriage, whether through sexual encounters or through open conversations. Polite society only deemed certain subjects as acceptable for topics of conversation during gatherings. Men’s and women’s roles were defined by the society in which they lived. For those who acted differently and stepped outside their prescribed spheres, society usually ostracized the offender. However, Romanticism demanded that people take a look at what industrialization had done to them. Instead of behaving automatically, romanticism supported passion and marriage for love. Followers believed that man’s original nature was good and that society set the rules. A follower of romanticism needed to break away from the rules society thrust upon them. Those were man made constraints, not any scientific ones. Austen herself was testing constructed roles by writing and publishing her novels. She did so anonymously, but, nevertheless, she was venturing into the male domain because she wrote. She was independent in a time when women were not. Independent women were highly suspected by society and could end up as pariahs if not careful. However, by mid century, women had more standing in front of the law, some rights in marriage, and were writing books under their own names and not being shamed by society for doing so. In writing Sense and Sensibility Austen combined both old and new worlds and looks to the new with hope. Marriage for convenience, power, and need would end while marriage for love, respect, and shared interests would take hold and grow in the new century. That Elinor and Marianne wed for love says that Austen’s intellect and heart were on the side of love. Love won. Works Cited http://www.literaturepage.com/read/senseandsensibility.html. Online book. Read More